Piazzetta, Giovanni Battista
Venice 1682 – 1754 Venice

An album of thirty-six prints reproducing paintings and drawings by Piazzetta, invariably showing the head and shoulders of one, two, or three figures, engraved by Giovanni Cattini or Marco Pitteri.

Venice circa 1743 –1754

paper the binder’s endleaves are joined scraps of paper watermarked with intertwining letters l c (45 × 50 mm);¹ the marbled paper (laid over the pastedowns and to the facing side of the free-endpapers) is a small spot pattern, curled and swirled (blue, red, yellow, black, white colours).

provenance folios numbered in blue pencil (except first and last sheets) in upper right corner — Pierre Berès, his sale by Pierre Bergé & Associés, ‘Fonds de la librairie Pierre Berès. Des incunables à nos jours. 1ère partie’, Paris, 28 October 2005, lot 124

binding contemporary calf over paper boards; blind-tooled frame on covers with large fleur-de-lys at each angle, the spine decorated by gilt impressions of the latter tool, and lettering-piece Ioannis Baptist Piazzetta Iconis (abrasions, repairs to joints).

Image

Throughout his career, the gifted Venetian painter and draughtsman Giovanni Battista Piazzetta drew portraits and so-called Teste di Carattere, as works of art in their own right, intended to be seen glazed and framed and hung on the wall, not in an album or portfolio. They were the first series of drawings ever produced specifically for this purpose. Like Rosalba Carriera’s pastels, and Pietro Longhi’s small oil paintings, Piazzetta’s ‘heads’ were ideally suited for the change of fashion which occurred in Venice in the early years of the Settecento, when a new taste arose for light and airy décor, intimate rooms embellished with small pictures, and small pretty furniture. Enthusiasm for Piazzetta’s character studies was immediate; they became fabulously popular, and contin­ued to be highly prized, by a group of enthusiastic international collectors as well as by Venetians, for some years after the artist’s death.²

For those who could not afford drawings, prints were an effective substitute. A project to engrave Piazzetta’s oeuvre apparently was conceived in the early 1740s, by the printmakers Marco Alvise Pitteri (1702–1786) and Giovanni Cattini (1715–1804 or 1809), with an intentional division of the work, ‘l’uno [Pitteri] riproducendo le immagini sacre, l’altro [Cattini] le profane’ (mariuz p.50). In 1742, Pitteri requested a privilege for engraving fifteen of Piazzetta’s ‘heads’, and this is generally linked with the series of the Twelve Apostles, together with God the Father, The Redeemer, and The Virgin. In the following year, Cattini published as Icones ad vivum expressae fourteen studies of character and expression, with a portrait of Piazzetta as a frontispiece. Both sets are present in our album in fine, early impressions, together with another of Piazzetta’s ‘sacre Imagini’ (Saint Paul, etched by Pitteri), and five of his ‘Figure ideali’ (also etched by Pitteri), making a total of thirty-six prints.

By 1755, Pitteri’s framed prints after Piazzetta had become a familiar element in well-to-do Venetian interiors – ‘il più bell’ornamento di uno studio, di una Camera, di un ritiro’, effused the playwright Carlo Goldoni in a dedicatory letter to the printmaker (Le Commedie del Dottore Carlo Goldoni, Florence 1755, x, p.301, cited by mariuz p.48). Twenty years later, ‘les suites de piazettes gravées par Pitteri’ were still in fashion, dazzling Fragonard in the print shops of the Merceria.³ Cattini’s prints after Piazzetta also enjoyed a long life: six or more editions of the Icones were published from the original matrices, in 1743, 1753, 1754, 1763, 1767, and 1779.

Some purchasers continued the practice of binding prints in albums, and Pitteri catered to them by printing an undated ‘title-page’ – Opera Joannis Baptistae Piazzetta Veneti Pictoris Eximii, Quae Marcus Pitteri Venetus sculpsit et escudit – to place before their personal selections of his prints. Such albums probably were once common, but over time they have been broken up, and complete sets of these prints are now rare even in the largest public collections (all six editions of Cattini’s Icones together are known by a handful of copies).

Two albums comparable to our own are recorded, both evidently compiled around the same time as ours, in the mid-1750s. And also like ours, they contain impressions which – on the evidence of surface dirt, dampstains, and marks from handling – had a life as loose sheets before being gathered and bound. One album (in the Houghton Library, Harvard Univer­sity) is bound in contemporary red paper boards, and contains the 1743 first issue of Cattini’s prints, together with eleven prints by Pitteri (including his portraits of Goldoni and Piazzetta, both etched in the first half of 1754). The other album (with Colnaghi in 1978, sold to David Tunick, Inc., and broken up for the latter’s ‘Catalogue 11’, published 1981), was bound in ‘18th century Italian marbled boards’, and contained the 1754 issue of Cattini’s prints, and twenty-nine prints by Pitteri (including impressions of all the prints in the Houghton Library album).

Icones ad vivum expressae, et in quindecim tabellis a Joanne Cattini collec­tae ac aere incisae.

Venice, Giambattista Pasquali, 1743

folio (album dimensions 555 × 430 mm), (16) ff., the complete set, comprising title-page (printed in red and black, with engraved device ‘Litterarum Felicitas’ signed Ant. Visentini Inv. Del. et Sculpsit; see Fig. 2), portrait, and fourteen numbered plates, as described below.

paper title-page and prints i–xii printed on paper with crossbow watermark (length 132 mm, similar to robison p.225 no. 49, where dated 1747–1748); portrait, plates xiii–xiv watermarked a s (height 40/42 mm, similar to robison no. 52, where dated 1748–1749).

condition fine impressions, generally in very good state of preservation: surface dirt and fingerstains in margins of plate iv, occasional dust-soiling elsewhere; a clean tear in lower margin of plate vi, two short repaired tears in lower margin of plate xiv; faint hanging folds across centres, plates xiii and xiv larger than the others and bound hori­zontally (vertical fold, 180/190 mm turned in).

First issue of the Icones ad vivum expressae, or ‘images taken from life’, a series of fourteen engraved portraits and Teste di Carattere, of which two (plates vii–viii, lettered Giambattista Piazzetta dipin. | Jo. Cattini dis. ed inc.) are said to reproduce paint­ings, and the remainder presentation drawings (drawings made as independent works of art), typically executed by Piazzetta in black chalk heightened with white on blue paper, of the head and shoulders of one, two or three figures, slightly smaller than life-size.

Image

The drawings for three prints, including the self-portrait of Piazzetta as a younger man used for the frontispiece, were certainly owned by the British consul in Venice, Joseph Smith, and because the set of prints was published at the press of Giambattista Pasquali, financed and operated by Smith, it is widely believed that Smith was behind the publication, and owned all the originals reproduced (many have not survived, the early provenance of two is unknown).⁴

Giovanni Cattini is an accomplished engraver, but his oeuvre is small and hardly anything is known about his life. He was born at Venice about 1715, and learned printmaking in the studio of Giovanni Antonio Faldoni; his earliest known work is a print signed Io. Bapta Mariotti Inv. | Io: Cattini Sc. in a book published at Venice in 1734 (the Greek Opera of Saint Irenaeus, ‘Apud Franciscum Pitterium bibliopolam ad signum Fortunae trium­phantis’). Cattini soon went to work for the prestigious publisher Giambattista Albrizzi, who also had Piazzetta under contract. In 1736, Cattini engraved his first print after Piazzetta, ‘Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet ispirato dalla Fede’, the frontispiece to the first vol­ume of Albrizzi’s edition of Bossuet’s Oeuvres (buberl pp.71–72 Abb. 33, for the drawing; dorigato no. 102, for the print). After completing the Icones he was commissioned by Consul Smith to engrave Smith’s pastel portrait of Giambattista Tiepolo by Bartolomeo Nazzari.⁵ He seems to have given up printmaking soon after Piazzetta’s death, in 1754, although his old matrices were used for books published long thereafter. The latter half of Cattini’s life – he lived until 1804 or 1809 – is undocumented.⁶

The taste for framing prints has decimated the Icones ad vivum expressae. Although six or more editions were published from the original matrices, few sets survive intact, and fewer still in contemporary bindings.⁷ Most impressions are now divorced from a title-page, often trimmed close to borderlines, and mounted, mutations which prevent – on our present understanding of paper and state, at least – determination of their edition/issue date.⁸

Any copies Consul Smith himself possessed have been lost, or rendered unrecognisable. The set now in the Royal Collection at Windsor – presumably Smith’s, through the 1762 purchase of his collections – is without title-page, and the impressions thus are of indeter­minable date.⁹ Smith acquired for his ‘second library’ a copy of an otherwise unknown edition published by Pasquali in 1753; it has not been sighted since 1773.¹⁰ Pasquali reissued the prints in 1754 (the year of Piazzetta’s death) and, according to George Knox, ‘Most copies have the title page dated 1754’ (knox p.86). Two editions were published in 1763, one under Pasquali’s imprint, the other ‘appresso Innocente Alessandri e Pietro Scattaglia’. A selection of plates (eight only) was struck by the publisher Teodoro Viero in 1767, ‘con le tavole largamente ritoccate’ (succi p.130 note 2). In 1779, Lodovico Furlanetto, who had bought all the ‘Rami e Carte’ from Smith’s widow, published the last known edition.

As the printed images were not protected by a privilege, a legal mechanism prohibiting others from reprinting them, the Venetian engraver Nicolò Cavalli was free to publish circa 1754 a set of smaller copies (chiari moretto wiel nos. 84–95). An­other set of copies, of much reduced size, signed Piazzetta delineavit | Cattini incidit, but doubtfully engraved by Cattini, was issued by Teodoro Viero about 1767 (buberl pp.103–104, chiari moretto wiel p.40). Meanwhile, copies had been published also at Augsburg, circa 1745–1750, engraved in mezzotint by Johann Lorenz Haid, and at Munich, in 1753, engraved by Franz Xavier Jungwirth.

Although the date 1743 on Cattini’s portrait of Piazzetta intimated an edition of the Icones published in that year, no copy was located until 1983, when George Knox announced ‘a very fine early set in the Mariette album of Piazzetta engravings’ in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris (knox p.86). Also in 1983, Dario Succi, Attilia Dorigato, and Adriano Mariuz independently cited the 1743 edition, with Succi establishing – without identifying the copies under comparison – two states of the matrices: in the first state (issued 1743) ‘I fogli sono numerati progressivamente’ (i–xiv, beneath the borderline), while in the second state (issued 1754) ‘la numerazione delle tavole è cancellata’ (succi p.130 note 2). Adduc­ing Succi, Dorignato described two prints numbered vii and xi from a set (?) in the Museo Correr (St. P.D. 636, 645) as ‘appartengono conseguentemente alla prima edizione’ (dorigato pp.174, 186). In 1996, Chiari Moretto Wiel mentioned a copy of the 1754 issue in the Museo Correr ‘in essa viene cancellata la numerazione progressiva delle tavole’ (Chiari Moretto Wiel p.40).

On the evidence available to the writer, it is not confirmed that the presence of plate num­bers denotes a 1743 first issue, and their absence a 1754 or later issue. In a copy of the 1763 edition examined in the National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, the fourteen plates are numerated in the matrices i–xiv beneath the borderlines, exactly as in our copy of the 1743 edition.¹¹ A reproduction from the copy of the 1754 edition described in the Colnaghi and Tunick catalogues shows numer­als beneath the bor­derline.¹² The copy of 1754 edition in the Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna – possibly acquired by Albert von Sachsen-Teschen, the foun­der of the Albertina collection, on his visit to Venice in 1776 – is another victim of curatorial reorganisa­tion: all the plates have been trimmed close to the borderlines, and laid to gallery mounts. Although its evidential value is thus di­min­ished – the impressions are possibly derived from multiple copies – it is still worth mentioning that at least one plate in the copy is numbered (plate i, reproduced by buberl Abb. 42).¹³

These complete copies of the 1743 edition are known to the writer¹⁴

● Cambridge, ma, Harvard University, Houghton Library, shelfmark Typ 725.43.691 PF (together with eleven prints by Marco Pitteri,¹⁵ in a contemporary album bound in paper boards, 510 × 695 mm) ● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France (cited by knox p.86) ● Venice, private collection (chiari moretto wiel nos. 68–83).

references Le Blanc, i, p.614 nos. 1–16: ‘16 pièces, y compris le portrait de Piazetta. 1754’; Pallucchini 1941 no. 85, fig. 21: plate xiii (plate number trimmed or erased); Dillon no. 87: plate vii (plate number trimmed or erased); Tunick no. 32 (plate numbered); Succi pp.130–132, figs. 128–129: plates xi, viii (plate numbers trimmed or erased); Knox nos. 25, 46, 48: frontispiece, plates vi, xiv (plate numbers trimmed or erased); Mariuz pp.48–53 nos. 110–113, 165: plates viii, xi, xiii, xiv, por­trait (plate numbers trimmed or erased); Dorigato pp.174, 186–187 no. 89[a–b]: plates vii, xi (plates numbered); Buberl pp.97–105, Abb. 40–55: title, portrait and all plates of 1754 issue reproduced (plate i only numbered, rest trimmed or erased); Chiari Moretto Wiel pp.40–55, nos. 68–83: title-page, por­trait, and all plates of 1743 issue reproduced; Boorsch pp.20, 38 nos. 63–64: plates xi, xiii (plate num­bers trimmed or era­sed)

List of prints

■ A Portrait of Piazzetta, 1743, etching and engrav­ing (platemark 442 × 337 mm), legends Joh. Baptista Piazzetta Pictor, natus Venetus. | Joh. Cattini in aes incidit observantiae et grati animi ergo Anno mdccxliii
mariuz p.53 no. 165, fig. 165; knox no. 25; chiari moretto wiel no. 69

■ A Man thinking, dedicated to Bernardo Nani (i), etching and engraving (platemark 447 × 335 mm), legends Excellentissimo Bernardo Nani P.V. | in obsequentis Animi monumentum D.D.D. | Jo. Baptista Piazzetta delineavit. | Joannes Cattini Sculptor Venetus. | i
chiari moretto wiel no. 70

■ A young Woman, dedicated to Giustiniana Morosini Gradenigo (ii), etching and engraving (platemark 445 × 335 mm), legends Felicibus sub Auspiciis Clarissimae Matronae Venetae | Justinianae de Maurocenis Gradonicae | Jo. Bapta Piazzetta delineavit. | Joannes Cattini Scul­ptor Venetus. | ii
chiari moretto wiel no. 71

■ Two Youths looking at each other, dedicated to Joseph Smith (iii), etching and engraving (platemark 447 × 338 mm), legends Clarissimo Viro Dno Dno Josepho Smith Anglo | Bonarum artium Promotori et Protectori beneficentis­simo | in grati animi argu­mentum D.D.D. | Jo. Bapta Piazzetta delineavit. | Joannes Cattini Sculptor Venetus. | iii
chiari moretto wiel no. 72

■ A Boy, dedicated to Agostino Maffetti (iv), etching and engraving (platemark 445 × 335 mm), legends Excellentissimo Augustino Maffetti P.V. | omnium bonarum Artium studiosiss. | hoc qualecumq. obsequii sui testi­monium D.D.D. | Jo. Baptista Piazzetta delin­­eavit. | Joannes Cattini Sculptor Venetus. | iv
chiari moretto wiel no. 73

■ An old Man leaning on a Stick, dedicated to Antonio Conti (v), etching and engraving (plate­mark 445 × 335 mm), legends Comiti Antonio Abbati Conti Patricio Veneto | In humillimum observantiae signum D.D.D. | Jo. Bapta Piazzetta delineavit. | Joannes Cattini Sculptor Vene­tus.| v
chiari moretto wiel no. 74

Image

■ A young Man embracing a Girl, dedicated to Angelo Maria Labia (vi), etching and engrav­ing (platemark 445 × 335 mm), legends Abbati Angelo Mariae Labia Pat. Ven. | Bonarum Artium Amantissimo | in suae venerationis ar­gu­mentum | D.D.D. | Jo. Bapta Piazzetta delin­eavit. | Joannes Cattini Sculptor Venetus. | vi
knox no. 46; chiari moretto wiel no. 75
See Fig. 3

■ A Woman with a Basket of Pears, dedicated to Marina Canal Savorgnan (vii), etching and engra­ving (platemark 455 × 340 mm), legends A S. Ecc.za la Sig.ra Marina Canal Savornian | In segno di profondo ossequio D.D.D. | Giambattista Piazzetta dipin. | Giovanni Cattini dis. ed inc. | vii
chiari moretto wiel no. 76

■ A Student reading with a Lens, dedicated to Giovanni Vezzi (viii), etching and engraving (plate­mark 443 × 342 mm), legends A S. Ecc.za Il Sig.or Co: Giovanni Vezzi N.V. | In contra­seg­no del mio rispetto D.D.D. | Giambattista Piazzetta dipin. | Joannes Cattini dis. ed inc. | viii
succi no. 129; mariuz p.53 no. 113, fig. 113; chiari moretto wiel no. 77

■ Young Musicians, dedicated to Sebastiano Molin (ix), etching and engraving (platemark 453 × 345 mm), legends Excellentiss. Sebastiano Molin Senat. Ven. | Bonarum Artium Cultori Eruditiss. | in perpetuum obser­vantiae pignus D.D.D. | Jo. Bapta Piazzetta delin. | Joannes Cattini Sculptor Venetus. | ix
chiari moretto wiel no. 78

■ An old Woman with a Rosary and a Boy in profile, dedicated to Pierre Jamineau (x), etch­ing and engraving (platemark 453 × 350 mm), legends Clariss. Viro Petro Philippo Jamineau | in suae aestimationis specimen D.D.D. | Jo. Bapta Piazzetta delin. | Joannes Cattini Sculptor Venetus. | x
chiari moretto wiel no. 79

■ A Mathematician, dedicated to Pietro Zen (xi), etching and engraving (platemark 455 × 350 mm), legends Excellentissimo Petro Zen P.V. | in obsequentis animi officium D.D.D. | Jo. Bapta Piazzetta delin. | Joannes Cattini Sculptor Venetus. | xi
succi no. 128; dorigato no. 89[b]; mariuz p.53 no. 112, fig. 112; chiari moretto wiel no. 80; boorsch no. 63

Image

■ A Boy leaning on a Stick and an old Man in pro­file, dedicated to Paolina Contarini (xii), etching and engraving (platemark 457 × 345 mm), legends Benigno sub Patrocinio Clariss. Matronae Venetae | Paulinae de Contarenis Contrarenae| Jo. Bapta Piazzetta delin. | Joannes Cattini Sculptor Venetus. | xii
chiari moretto wiel no. 81
See Fig. 4

■ A young Hunter and two young Women, dedicated to Prospero Valmarana (xiii), etching and engraving (platemark 465 × 583 mm, sheet 512 × 605 mm), legends Excellentissimo Viro Comiti Prospero Valmarana P.V. q.m. Triffonis | Bonarum Artium Protectori in venerationis argumen­tum D.D.D. | Jo. Baptista Piazzetta delin. | Joannes Cattini Sculptor Venetus | xiii
pallucchini 1941 no. 85, fig. 21; mariuz p.52 no. 111, fig. 111; chiari moretto wiel no. 82; boorsch no. 64

■ A Bravo, a Girl, and an old Woman (the Procuress), dedicated to Francesco Algarotti (xiv), etching and engraving (platemark 464 × 585 mm, sheet 512 × 605 mm), legends Illustris­simo et Eruditissimo Viro Comiti Francisco Algarotti, | eximio Scientiarum et Artium Cultori D.D.D. | Jo. Baptista Piazzetta delin. | Joannes Cattini Sculptor Venetus | xiv
mariuz p.52 no. 110, fig. 110; knox no. 48; chiari moretto wiel no. 83

Bound with

‘Quindici teste delli più rinomati dissegni di Giambatta Piazzetta’: The Twelve Apostles, God the Father, The Redeemer, and The Virgin, a set of fifteen prints, with a related print of Saint Paul.

Venice, [published by Marco Pitteri, circa 1744]

folio (album dimensions 555 × 430 mm), (16) ff., the prints numbered (4) i–xii, as described below.

paper all prints struck on a paper typical of Venice, watermark a s (letters 40 × 20 mm, neither tied to chains) found on the same sheet with b (20 mm, tied to chain); see robison p.225 nos. 51–52, for comparable a s watermarks (dated mid to late 1740s).

condition excellent impressions, some with plate tone, generally in very good state of preservation: dampstain in bottom left corner of Saint Paul, plates i –vi, ix; faint hanging folds.

Image

A set of fifteen prints after Piazzetta, portraying the head and shoulders of The Twelve Apostles, together with God the Father, The Redeemer, and The Virgin, known as the ‘Quindici teste’. Added here to the series is a related print portraying Saint Paul, of identi­cal size, lettered in the same style.

The printmaker Marco Alvise Pitteri (1702–1786) learnt printmaking from Giuseppe Baroni and Giovanni Antonio Faldoni, from whom he appropriated a ‘system of defining forms in long parallel lines, but instead of Faldoni’s smooth grooves, Pitteri’s lines are completely irregular in width, creating the effect of nodules along their length’ (boorsch p.20). This technique was especially suited to reproducing the subtle nuances of the chalk drawings of Piazzetta.

Pitteri’s earliest dated print is ‘La Chiesa che abbatte l’eresia’ after Piazzetta, the frontis­piece to Antonio da Venezia’s La chiesa di Gesù Cristo vendicata, published in 1724 by Recurti probably in association with Albrizzi (dorigato no. 101). In the late 1730s, he engraved a series of prints after Piazzetta for a small-format Beatae Mariae Virginis Offi­cium, published by Pasquali in 1740 (knox no. 68). Around the same time – working on a team of printmakers, the busiest of them Faldoni and Cattini – he etched a portrait (after Piazzetta) and four plates for another production of Albrizzi’s press, Zanetti’s Delle Antiche Statue Greche e Romani (1740–1743).

According to a legend Joannes Bapta Piazzetta pinxit on each plate, the ‘Quindici teste’ are modelled on paintings or oil sketches, however the ten-year privilege obtained by the printmaker Marco Pitteri in 1742, identifies the prototypes as drawings (‘quindici teste delli più rinomati dissegni di Giambatta Piazzetta’).¹⁶ Two paintings by Piazzetta and a large corpus of his drawings are linked to these prints; they are far from consistent in style as a group, with few indications of date.¹⁷

The date of first issue of the ‘Quindici teste’ is not known. Work on the plates certainly was well advanced – if not actually completed – on 20 June 1744, when seven of the set were admired by members of the Accademia Etrusca di Cortona.¹⁸ Their success encouraged Pitteri to etch – ‘in epoca posteriore alla suite maggiore’ (chiari moretto wiel p.26) – four matching prints, depicting Saints Luke, Mark, Paul, and John the Baptist, carrying the same warning that the images were protected by a privi­lege of the Venetian Senate (chiari moretto wiel p.xviii, nos. 26–30). A similar print of Saint Joseph with dedication line to Andrea Scipioni was also produced. This enlarged group of twenty ‘Sacre immagini’ was then re-engraved in reduced size (circa 160 × 105 mm) by Pitteri himself, and pub­lished under privilege.¹⁹

Also at unknown dates, Pitteri etched some secular subjects of Piazzetta – five are present in our album (see below) – and these were sold, together with the ‘Sacre immagini’, in print shops along the Merceria. To preface their personal selection of Pitteri’s prints, some pur­chasers acquired a title-page with printed text (in black) reading Opera | Joannis Baptistae Piazzetta | Veneti Pictoris Eximii, | Quae | Marcus Pitteri | Venetus | sculpsit et escudit.²⁰ Since Fragonard was still able to find in the Merceria ‘les suites de piazettes gravées par Pitteri’,²¹ it seems Pitteri’s matrices were re­struck as required for more than twenty years.

As yet, Pitteri’s prints have not been studied closely enough to identify reworkings of the matrices. Another state of The Virgin lettered ‘Consolatrix Afflictorum’ (in place of ‘Trinitatis delicia Virgo Maria’) is known, but priority has not been established (ravà no. 15). Impressions of The Virgin and Saint Peter with privilege lines, and with those privilege lines later erased, are also recorded (chiari moretto wiel nos. 11, 25). The impression of Saint John in our album seems early: it retains in the lower mar­gin an etched squiggle (shaped like an E), which is cleaned away in all other impressions seen.

Like Cattini’s Icones, the ‘Quindici teste’ was much copied, notably at Venice by Antonio Verico (chiari moretto wiel nos. 55–58), at Augsburg in mezzotint by Johann Lorenz Haid (knox pp.39–40), and at Munich by Franz Xavier Jungwirth (chiari moretto wiel nos. 51–54).

references Le Blanc, iii, p.211 nos. 29–48 (adding other prints to the set); Ravà nos. 1, 3, 15, 29–40, 108 (Saint Paul); Pallucchini 1941 p.99 nos. 465–467: plates vii, ii, xi; Tunick items 183 (full set), 187 (Saint Paul); Succi pp.308–309 nos. 374–378, 388: plates vi, vii, xii, xi, v, God the Father; Mariuz p.51 nos. 94–101: plates i, iii, iv, v, Saint Paul, vi, vii, xi; Dorigato nos. 78–80: plates i, iii, vii, xi, God the Father, The Redeemer, The Virgin; Knox pp.138, 140–141 no. 56: plate xii; The Glory of Venice pp.149, 475 no. 69: plate xii; Chiari Moretto Wiel pp.10–30 nos. 11–25 (full set); Boorsch p.41 nos. 99–100: plates vii, xi; Pellegrini pp.114–115, nos. 41–43: plates vii, xi, iii

List of prints

■ God the Father, etching (platemark 430 × 335 mm), legends Joannes Bapt. Piazzetta pinxit. | Marcus Pitteri sculpsit | [centred:] Omnium creaturarum Increatus Sator. | Venetiis cum privile­gio Excellentiss: Senatus.
ravà no. 1; succi no. 388; chiari moretto wiel no. 23

■ The Redeemer, etching (platemark 432 × 340 mm), legends Joannes Bapt. Piazzetta pinxit. | Marcus Pitteri sculpsit. | [centred:] Peccati, mortisque triumphator Christus | Venetiis cum pri­vilegio Excellentiss. Senatus
ravà no. 3; pallucchini 1941 no. 464; chiari moretto wiel no. 24

■ The Virgin, etching (platemark 430 × 328 mm), legends Joannes Bapt. Piazzetta pinxit. | Marcus Pitteri sculpsit. | [centred:] Trinitatis delicia Virgo Maria. | Venetiis cum privilegio Excellentiss. Senatus.
ravà no. 15; dorigato no. 81; chiari moretto wiel no. 25

■ Saint Paul, etching (platemark 435 × 330 mm), legends Joannes Bapta Piazzetta pinxit | Marcus Pitteri sculpsit | [centred:] Sanctus Paulus. | Venetiis cum privilegio Excellentiss Senatus
ravà no. 108; tunick no. 187; succi no. 387; mariuz p.51 no. 98, fig. 98; chiari moretto wiel no. 28

■ Saint Peter, etching (platemark 448 × 350 mm), legends Joannes Bapt. Piazzetta pinxit. | Marcus Pitteri sculpsit. i | [centred:] Sanctus Petrus | Venetiis cum privilegio Excellentiss: Senatus
ravà no. 37; knox no. 54; mariuz p.51 no. 94, fig. 94; chiari moretto wiel no. 11

■ Saint Andrew, etching (platemark 450 × 350 mm), legends Joannes Bapt. Piazzetta pinxit. | Marcus Pitteri sculpsit. ii | [centred:] Sanctus Andreas | Venetiis cum privilegio Excellentiss Senatus.
ravà no. 29; pallucchini 1941 no. 466; chiari moretto wiel no. 12

■ Saint James the Greater, etching (platemark 446 × 346 mm), legends Joannes Bapta Piazzetta pinxit | Marcus Pitteri sculpsit. iii | [centred:] S. Jacobus Maior | Venetiis cum privilegio Excel­lentiss Senatus
ravà no. 32; mariuz p.51 no. 95, fig. 95; chiari moretto wiel no. 13

■ Saint John the Evangelist, etching (platemark 435 × 340 mm), legends Joannes Bapta Piazzetta pinxit | Marcus Pitteri sculpsit iv. | Sanctus Joannes | Venetiis cum privilegio Excellen­tiss. Senatus.
ravà no. 31; mariuz p.51 no. 96, fig. 96; chiari moretto wiel no. 14

■ Saint Thomas, etching (platemark 438 × 340 mm), legends Joannes Bapta Piazzetta pinxit. | Marcus Pitteri sculpsit. v | [centred:] Sanctus Thomas. | Venetiis cum privilegio Excellentiss Senatus.
ravà no. 40; mariuz p.51 no. 97, fig. 97; chiari moretto wiel no. 15

■ Saint James the Lesser, etching (platemark 435 × 342 mm), legends Joannes Bapta Piazzetta pinxit. | Marcus Pitteri sculpsit vi . | S. Jacobus Minor | Venetiis cum privilegio Excellentiss. Senatus.
ravà no. 33; succi no. 374; mariuz p.51 no. 99, fig. 99; chiari moretto wiel no. 16

■ Saint Philip, etching (platemark 435 × 340 mm), legends Joannes Bapt Piazzetta pinxit | Marcus Pitteri sculpsit. vii | Sanctus Philippus. | Venetiis cum privilegio Excel­lentiss Senatus.
ravà no. 34; pallucchini 1941 no. 465; succi no. 375; mariuz p.51 no. 100, fig. 100; chiari moretto wiel no. 17; boorsch no. 99
See Fig. 5

■ Saint Bartholomew, etching (platemark 435 × 340 mm), legends Joannes Bapt Piazzetta pin­xit.| Marcus Pitteri sculpsit viii. | Sanctus Bartholomaeus. | Venetiis cum privilegio Excellentiss. Senatus
ravà no. 30; chiari moretto wiel no. 18

■ Saint Matthew, etching (platemark 435 × 335 mm), legends Joannes Bapta Piazzetta pinxit.| Marcus Pitteri sculpsit ix. | Sanctus Matthaeus | Venetiis cum privilegio Excel­lentiss. Senatus.
ravà no. 35; chiari moretto wiel no. 19

■ Saint Simon, etching (platemark 430 × 340 mm), legends Joannes Bapt. Piazzetta pinxit. | Marcus Pitteri sculpsit. x. | Sanctus Simeon. | Venetiis cum privilegio Excellentiss. Senatus
ravà no. 38; chiari moretto wiel no. 20

■ Saint Jude, etching (platemark 450 × 355 mm), legends Joannes Bapta Piazzetta pinxit | Marcus Pitteri sculpsit xi | Sanctus Thaddaeus | Venetiis cum privilegio Excellentiss Senatus
ravà no. 39; pallucchini 1941 no. 467, fig. 55; succi no. 377; knox no. 56; mariuz pp.51–52 no. 101, fig. 101; chiari moretto wiel no. 21; glory of venice no. 69; boorsch no. 100

■ Saint Matthias, etching (platemark 450 × 350 mm), legends Joannes Bapta Piazzetta pinxit. | Marcus Pitteri sculpsit xii. | Sanctus Matthias. | Venetiis cum privilegio Excellentiss Senatus
ravà no. 36; succi no. 376; chiari moretto wiel no. 22

Bound with

‘Capricciose teste’: a group of five prints

Venice, [published by Marco Pitteri, circa 1750–1754]

folio (album dimensions 555 × 430 mm), five prints (as described below), bound in the album between the Icones and ‘Quindici teste’).

paper all prints struck on a paper stock similar to that used here for the ‘Quindici teste’, with water­mark a s (letters 40 × 20 mm, neither tied to chains), however b (20 mm., tied to chain line) here observed only in ‘A young Man draw­ing his Sword’; compare robison p.225 nos. 51–52 (dated mid to late 1740s).²²

condition in very good state of preservation: light damp­stain in fore-edge margin of ‘A Man in a Fur-collared Coat’ extending into about four square inches of image, another insignificant dampstain in bottom left corner of image; same dampstain in bottom left corner of ‘A young Man drawing a Sword’.

These five prints are dated by most critics to the period immediately following Piazzetta’s death (ravà p.13; mauroner p.10), with Chiari Moretto Wiel proposing further that four of them – excepting ‘A young Man drawing a Sword’ – ‘constituire una piccola serie’ (chiaro moretto wiel pp.xxii, 76).

The prints are based on drawings or perhaps paint­ings by Piazzetta for which the exact models do not survive. Pallucchini suggested that the man with a fur collar is a fancy por­trait of Piazzetta himself (‘autoritratti idealizzati’) after an unknown original (pallucchini 1968 p.112).²³ The etching ‘A Boy with a Dog’ is close in style and character to a drawing identified by Knox as a portrait of Piazzetta’s son Giacomo circa 1742, when he was about seventeen years old (cf. knox no. 34). The print of ‘A young Woman in profile’ relates to drawings and paintings of Piazzetta’s wife, Rosa, when she was about thirty-seven years of age (cf. knox no. 31).

Impressions of these prints struck at the end of the century by Giovanni Maria Pedrali, a specialist in reworking worn-out plates (he published the fifth edition of Luca Carlevarijs, Le Fabriche e vedute di Venetia, around 1800) are recorded.²⁴

references Le Blanc, iii, pp.211–212 nos. 76–80 (‘Bustes de paysans et paysannes: Piazetta. 5 p. gr in-fol.’), 103; Ravà nos. 265–266, 268, 271, 444; Pallucchini 1941 p.97 nos. 446, 448–450; Mauroner p.10; Pallucchini 1968 p.113 fig. 160; Tunick items 192–196 (individually priced $725 or $750); Chiari Moretto Wiel pp.73–77 nos. 141–145; C.G. Boerner, Italian prints 1500–1800. Mantegna through Giovanni David. Stock List 108 (New York & Düsseldorf 1997), nos. 68–70 (individually priced $800 or indicated sold); Boorsch pp.20, 41–42 nos. 103–104

Image

List of prints

■ A Man in a Fur-Collared Coat (self-portrait of the artist?), etching (platemark 455 × 355 mm), legends Joannes Bapt. Piazzetta inv. | Marcus Pitteri sculpsit .
ravà no. 444; mauroner no. 20; pallucchini 1941 no. 450; tunick no. 196 (watermark: cross­bow); mariuz p.52 no. 107, fig. 107; dorigato no. 87[d]; Boerner, op. cit., no. 70 (watermarks: three crescents + Imperial + F C); chiari moretto wiel no. 142

■ A young Man drawing a Sword, etching (plate­mark 435 × 343 mm), legends Gio. Batta Piazzetta inven. | D.D. Marcus Pitteri Incisor. | [centred:] Josepho Nogari celebri Pictori in argumentum aestimationis et benevolentiae
ravà no. 265; mauroner no. 21; pallucchini 1941 no. 446, fig. 56; tunick no. 192 (watermark: crossbow); mariuz p.52 no. 102, fig. 102; dorigato no. 87[a]; chiari moretto wiel no. 141

■ A young Woman in profile (the artist’s wife, Rosa Piazzetta?), etching (platemark 452 × 352 mm), leg­ends Piazzetta Inve. | Pitteri scul .
ravà no. 268; tunick no. 194 (watermark: cross­bow); mariuz p.52 no. 103, fig. 103; Boerner, op. cit., no. 68 (water­marks: three crescents + Imperial); chiari moretto wiel no. 143 (repro­duction trimmed, deleting legends)

■ A Boy with a Dog (the artist’s eldest son, Giacomo Piazzetta?), etching (platemark 445 × 345 mm), leg­ends Piazzetta Inv. | Pitteri sculp. Venetiis.
ravà no. 266 and pl.25; mauroner no. 18; pallucchini 1941 no. 449; tunick no. 193 (water­mark: crowbow); mariuz p.52 no. 105, fig. 105; dorigato no. 87[b]; Boerner, op. cit., no. 69 (watermark: F Calchiardi Toscolano); chiari moretto wiel no. 144; boorsch no. 103
See Fig. 1

■ A young Woman and a Boy, etching (platemark 455 × 355 mm), legends Gio: Batta: Piazzetta inv. | Marco Pitteri sculp.
ravà no. 271; mauroner no. 19; Pallucchini 1941 no. 448, fig. 57; tunick no. 195; mariuz p.52 no. 104, fig. 104; dorigato no. 87[c]; Chiari Moretto Wiel no. 145; boorsch no. 104
See Fig. 6

Bibliography

boorsch
Suzanne Boorsch, Venetian prints and books in the age of Tiepolo, catalogue of an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 23 January–27 April 1997 (New York 1997)

buberl
Brigitte Buberl, ‘… un occhio e mezzo’. Kupferstiche nach Vorlagen von Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1683–1754) (Münster 1987)

chiari moretto wiel
Maria Agnese Chiari Moretto Wiel, L’eredità di Piazzetta. Volti e figure nell’ incisione del Settecento, catalogue of an exhibition held at the Palazzo Ducale, Venice, 22 June–15 September 1996 (Venice 1996)

dillon
Gianvittorio Dillon, Aspetti dell’incisione veneziana nel Settecento, catalogue of an exhibition held at Scuola grande di S. Teodoro, Venice, 30 October–22 November 1976 (Venice 1976)

dorigato
Attilia Dorigato, ‘Giambattista Piazzetta e l’incisione veneziana del Settecento’ in Giambattista Piazzetta: il suo tempo, la sua scuola (Venice 1983), pp.173–194

gallo
Rodolfo Gallo, L’incisione nel ’700 a Venezia e a Bassano (Venice 1941)

glory of venice
The Glory of Venice: art in the eighteenth century, cata­logue of an exhibition held at the Royal Acad­emy of Arts, London, 15 September–14 December 1994, and at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, 29 January–23 April 1995, edited by Jane Martineau and Andrew Robison (New Haven & London 1994)

knox
George Knox, Piazzetta. A tercentenary exhibition of drawings, prints, and books, catalogue of an exhibition, 20 November 1983–26 February 1984 (Washington, dc 1983)

le blanc
Charles Le Blanc, Manuel de l’amateur d’estampes (Paris 1854–1890)

mariuz
Adriano Mariuz, ‘“Questi xe visi… Nu depensemo delle masch­ere”: Giambattista Piazzetta e gli incisori delle sue “mezze figure”’ in G.B. Piazzetta. Disegni, Incisioni, Libri, Manoscritti, catalogue of an exhibition of the Fondazioni Giorgio Cini, Venice, edited by Alessandro Bettagno (Vicenza 1983), pp.48–53. Reprinted in Teste di fantasia del Settecento veneziano, catalogue of an exhibition, Galleria di Palazzo Cini, Venice, 9 September–22 October 2006, edited by Renzo Mangili and Giuseppe Pavanello (Venice 2006), pp.52–61

mauroner
Fabio Mauroner, Incisioni del Pitteri (Bergamo 1944)

pallucchini 1941
Rodolfo Pallucchini, Mostra degli incisori veneti del Settecento. Catalogo (Venice 1941)

pallucchini 1968
Rodolfo Pallucchini, ‘Miscellanea Piazzettesca’ in Arte Veneta 22 (1968), pp.106–130

pellegrini
Tiepolo, Canaletto, Piranesi e altri. Incisione venete del Settecento dei Musei Civici di Padova, catalo­gue of an exhibition held at the Palazzo del Monte, Padua, 12 June–20 July 1997, edited by Franca Pellegrini (Padua 1997)

ravà
Aldo Ravà, Marco Pitteri. Incisore veneziano (Florence 1922)

robison
Andrew Robison, Piranesi. Early Archi­tec­tural Fantasies. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Etchings (London 1986)

succi
Dario Succi, Da Carlevarijs ai Tiepolo. Incisori veneti e friulani del Settecento, catalogue of an exhi­bition held at Gorizia, Musei provinciali, and Venice, Museo Correr (Venice 1983)

tunick
David Tunick, Inc., Italian Prints of the Eighteenth Cen­tury [catalogue 11] (New York 1981)